Thicker than water
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Limberger had gone too far this time by impregnating three human women with their offspring.the women died in childbirth with the young.But one remained.Now the bros have to pull together to track down Throttle's daughter,and the woman who bore her
1. Chapter 1

Constructive criticism is welcome and deeply appreciated.

Thicker than Water-

Chapter 1

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They weren't sure what happened. One minute they had been doing their daily rounds to make sure that there wasn't any criminal activity going on and the next thing they knew...

Nothing.

What they did know however was that they must have fallen under an ambush or sneak attack and had been overwhelmed by the enemy. Perhaps stunned or knocked unconscious, because when they came to feeling groggy and with their heads aching and feeling slightly nauseous. They were each laying face down in a solid steel cage on a cold white tile floor.

They groaned and lifted their heads and looked around, weakly noting first and foremost that they were in cages right next to one another and that they were in a room that looked freakishly similar Karbuckle's lab. The walls were an off white, there were pieces of broken machines, and surgical tools lying everywhere.

There were several metal autopsy tables a good twenty or so feet from them that had rust colors stains on them and the room smelled like the sickening blend of death, antiseptic, and freshly spilled blood mingling with the subtle hints of sweat, tears, urine and other bodily fluids.

From whoever had been on the operating table no doubt.

They each took a second to_ try_ and remember what happened to them and how they had gotten where they were now, but couldn't recall anything aside from being on the road riding their bikes and minding their own business.

They pushed themselves upright and did a mental check to make sure that they didn't have any injuries. Once that was done they each got to their feet feeling shaky and more than a little weak and tried to think of a way to escape.

They took turns trying to kick the cell door off it's hinges, ramming their shoulders into the cold metal bars and trying to pull the bars apart but after about thirty minutes of trying they realized that they weren't going to get that lucky and manage to free themselves so easily. And fell back away to the far side of the cell, across from the door and quietly dropped down to the floor to patiently wait for whoever had grabbed them to make an appearance.

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Limberger stared at the three TV screens with a malicious smile.

Finally, finally after nearly two years of experimentation, and over a dozen different trial and error incidents, he was about to have his new weapons. Weapons made of flesh and blood and _sired_ by the seed of his most hated enemies.

He watched the faces of the two human females already in the advanced stages of their labor, their faces were sweat streaked and contorted with pain. Their bodies writhing in agony as they struggled to give birth. _It won't be much longer for these two-_ He thought in amusement as his violet eyes shifted to the third screen and the woman shown on it.

She was moving around her room restlessly-at her home nearly three blocks from his building. Where as the other two were already in the building in his care, this one-

This slip of a human woman_ evaded_ him and his men. She fought him, threatened and bullied him at every turn despite his efforts to earn her trust and assure her that he was only here to help her and her unborn child.

In his opinion the little bitch deserved to die screaming. But that could wait for now.

First he had some rodents to inform of their impending fatherhood.


	2. Chapter 2

Thicker than water-

Chapter 2

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They could smell him coming a mile away. Even before the door opened and he walked in.

The combination of rancid over ripe blue cheese and bile, making them curl their lips back from their teeth in a silent snarl as they got to their feet._ Limberger. _The Plutarkian stopped in front of their cells, a wide grin on his masked face. "Good evening gentlemen. Are you enjoying your stay so far?"

"What do you want fish face?" Modo growled as he gripped the bars of his cell in his hands as tightly as he could. Limberger looked at the three of them and dug into the breast pocket of his amethyst purple suit and pulled out three pink and blue colored cigar shaped pieces of bubblegum and held one out to Modo.

Modo looked at the blue stick warily and Limberger chortled. "Take it. It holds a clue to why I had you three rodents captured and brought here."

"If this blows up in my face-" Modo started to growl when Limberger said.

"My dear boy, I have no intention of killing any of you so easily." _Not when I can enjoy torturing you. _Limberger thought as the giant reached out and cautiously took the blue piece of bubblegum and studied it.

The gum was wrapped in clear plastic with a gold and black band around the middle of it that had words printed across the label in big gold letters, 'Congratulations it's a boy!_' _

Modo stared at the bubblegum in his hands and frowned. Unable to figure out why Limberger would hand them such a thing. Beside him, Throttle and Vinny studied their own bubblegum and it's wrapper. Vinny got a blue one like Modo's and Throttle...

Throttle got a pink one which must have upset him a little bit. Because one second he was perfectly calm and the next his nuck-knucks were crackling and his furious scarlet eyes could be seen, glaring at the Plutarkian over the top of his shades as he bit out the words.

"_What. Have. You. Done?_"

Limberger gave the tan colored mouse a malicious smile. "Why dear boy, I haven't done anything. But the good doctor on the other hand-" Limberger walked over to a computer several feet away and typed something in. Automatically there was the sound of grinding gears, the sound was loud and shrill and caused the three martians to jump a little bit in alarm and automatically look down at the floor to be sure that they weren't about to be dropped into a pit of some kind. Once they were assured that the floor wasn't what was causing the sound they looked back up and froze when they could see three TV screens hovering in front of their cells.

On each screen was the face of a human female.

All between the ages of nineteen and twenty two. All of them fair skinned and beautiful. One had red shoulder length hair and there was another with mid back length ash blond hair and the third one had thick chocolate brown hair that hung nearly to her waist.

Two of the women were sitting up in what looked like hospital beds, their feet were in stirrups, their legs spread, and their stomachs were swollen and distended and they were in _pain_. A lot of pain from the looks of things.

"What is this?" Vinny asked in a slightly alarmed tone as Karbuckle and Greasepit appeared on screen wearing scrubs and masks and gloves. Modo and Throttle stared at the screens with their hearts in their throats, their hands reaching out and grasping the bars of their cell, hard.

"Can't you tell dear boy?" Limberger asked slyly as they saw Karbuckle move to stand between one (the red headed) woman's legs as Greasepit moved to hold her down by the shoulders. The woman screamed and thrashed around for a moment, trying to free herself but was simply too weak to continue fighting as Karbuckle put his hands on her swollen stomach and pressed down a little bit.

The woman came up off of the bed screaming, fear etched into her features.

"What's he doing?" Modo asked in horror as a large volume of blood suddenly gushed out from between the woman's legs and onto the floor. She thrashed around again, a look of agony on her face as she became paler and paler until finally after what seemed like forever Karbuckle stopped pressing down on her stomach and she fell back onto the bed and lay eerily still as Karbuckle grabbed something about the size of a watermelon and dragged it out from between her legs.

The three mice blinked in utter_ horror_ as they made out the form of the thing that Karbuckle had in his grasp. They could make out a little head, round little ears, a small muzzle-

Limberger made a humming sound and looked at Modo. "Well, I would have thought that Mr. Van Wham's child would be born first. But it looks like_ your_ son made it first." Modo flinched as if he had been struck and staggered back until his back hit the bars behind him and stared at Limberger wide eyed.

"M-M-My s-son?"

"That's right you over sized rodent. Is everything sinking in now?"

Throttle and Vinny both looked at the bubblegum cigars in their hands and fought against the led weight that settled in their chests, threatening to suffocate them. The women on the screen were carrying their young?

How? How had this happened?

"I can see that everything isn't adding up for you rodents so allow me to shed a little light on the situation. You all recall being held and experimented on right-" Limberger said said with a smirk, noting the shocked looks on their faces morphed to murderous fury.

"You didn't-" Vinny breathed, his whole body shaking with rage.

"Oh indeed we did. You see while you were unconscious the good doctor extracted some tissues, blood, bone chips and of course...some of your seed. After you three escaped we sort of forgot about the samples for a while. That is until Karbuckle came across the samples in his freezer and we both decided to use them for a little experiment. We would use a little bit of the samples to impregnate three random earth females, and then when the little ones were born the mothers would be dealt with and the children would be raised here in the tower as weapons. It took several dozen failed attempts, and several women's deaths but finally we managed to carry through with the first part of our experiment-"

"The red head is Miss Julie Mathews. The mother of Modo's young. The blond woman in Carla Sinclare. The mother of Mr. Van Wham's young. And finally there is Rain Andrews...the problem child of the three. She carries Throttle Thornboy's young-" Limberger said as he looked at the dark haired woman on the third screen as Karbuckle appeared on the second screen and started to work on the blond woman.

Throttle's eyes shifted to the woman carrying his young and studied her slight profile on the screen. She was small. Much smaller than the other two women had been. Her build was more delicate, and her stomach...

He could barely tell that it was swollen at all, her body made it appear as if she were only three months along meaning that his young was much smaller than it should be._ Would it be born healthy?_ He wondered worriedly. Still unable to fully comprehend that he was staring at a woman- No that wasn't right, he couldn't think of her as _just_ another woman. Not when she was going to birth his young. _Her name is Rain. Rain Andrews. It's best that you remember the name of the woman birthing your offspring._ He chided himself as he watched her walk around her room.

A room that it took him a second to notice was totally different from the rooms that the other two women were being kept in.

He stared at the lay out of the room, his mind abuzz with questions when he saw the woman double over in pain, her arms wrapping around her stomach and his mind came to a screeching halt for several heart beats as he mentally counted the length of time she spent doubled over in the grips of her contraction before she straightened her spine.

One hand rubbing the small of her back and the other rubbing her stomach as she resumed her restless pacing.

_Seven minutes._ Throttle thought as he calculated just how far in her labor she was and came to the conclusion that her labor was just starting. Which meant that she still had _hours_ before she actually gave birth.

"You look worried Commander." Limberger commented as he glanced at Throttle. Throttle peeled his lips back from his teeth and gave an impressive growl. Of course he was worried! It was only normal to feel worried when you found out that 1) Your going to be a father. And 2) You're worst enemy had dragged a defenseless woman into a fight that by all rights; should have stayed between them.

"I'm not." Throttle lied, not wanting to give Limberger another reason to cause the mother of his young more pain. Not when it was his job to keep her and their young safe from gave him a peculiar look then turned away and looked at the screens again.

They watched Karbuckle work on the blond, watched as Greasepit held the woman down while the doctor cut her stomach open and pulled out Vinny's young and cradled it in his thin arms, not caring that the child's mother was bleeding to death on the bed, begging for someone to help her as the light slowly went out of her eyes.

Vinny was hyperventilating, his expression horrified as tears slipped down his face. How could they? How could Limberger and Carbuckle do something so inhumane and cruel to those women?

And what about the young ones? Were they alright?

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Carbuckle stared down at the human mouse hybrid in disappointment.

It had been over twenty minutes since he had started working on both of the infants to make sure that they were healthy and_ neither_ one of them was even breathing. He pulled his mask down and made a hissing sound.

Dammit, all this time and effort to create an effective weapon against those over grown rodents and the damned things _died_ before they could even take a breath outside of their mother's wombs. It was pathetic. And though these two were a huge loss, his experiment could be continued as long as the third woman was alive and well.

He stripped off his latex gloves and tossed the bloody things in the trash and walked over to the phone hanging on the far wall of the room and took it from it's cradle and dialed his bosses cell number.

He wasn't exactly looking forward to telling Mr. Limberger that two of his weapons were dead, but there was really no way around it. Besides, he sort of wanted to hear how the rodents took the news that two of their precious young were deceased.

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The sound of his cell phone playing the theme of The Godfather. Drawing his eyes away from the dark haired human female as he dug out his phone and flipped it open and said, "One moment Carbuckle. I want the rodents to hear whatever your going to say about their young-" He pressed the button to put the doctor on speaker then said. "Alright doctor. Report."

"Well your rancidness, it's like this..." Carbuckle said nervously before blurting out in a rush. "_The two infant males are dead._" Limberger glanced at the mice for a second noting the pained expressions from the two fathers and the saddened look on their friends face.

"What happened?"

"They died from unknown complications, sir."

Limberger made an irritated sound. "I see. Well, there is little we can do about their deaths. Destroy the bodies and prepare a clean room for the third woman."

"Yes, your cream cheesiness. I'll send Greasepit to collect the bothersome woman."


	3. Chapter 3

Thicker than water-

Chapter 3

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_Rain Andrews wasn't a fool._

_She known that something big was up the day that she had found out that she was pregnant. And while she had been puzzled about how her pregnancy had occurred, she had never the less known that something was up._

_Which had made her incredibly paranoid about what was going to happen next._

_Which had led her to do research into unexplained pregnancies eerily similar to her own and had found out that at least half a dozen women in the area, all of them between the ages of eighteen and twenty two, all of them pregnant...had either mysteriously died or gone missing over the span of two years._

_She'd thought is suspicious that so many pregnant women had either died or gone missing without a trace. But what had really sealed the deal in her mind was when she had received a visit from a man called Lawrence Limberger._

_A multi-millionaire business man whom had parked himself right outside of her apartment one day and waited for her to come out._

_It had been seven months ago, just three weeks after she had found out that she was pregnant. She had walked out the front door of her apartment and had stopped in mid step when she noticed the sleek black stretch limo sitting in front of her building._

_She stood there staring at it for several heart beats, warning bells going off in her mind as the door opened and a big man standing about six foot seven inches, with dark hair styled similar to Jon Travolta in the movie Grease, wearing a dark purple suit and looking like a really gay gangster got out of the limo with a bouquet of pink roses and white orchids and walked up to her._

_"Ah, good afternoon Miss. May I ask if you are Rain Andrews?"_

_She took an abrupt step back as he stopped directly in front of her, the scent of overly ripe and rotting blue cheese wafting from the man was causing her stomach to cramp and lurch dangerously. She lifted a hand to her nose and mouth and gagged a little bit before managing to croak, "Who wants to know?"_

_He gave her what he probably thought was a charming smile and thrust the flowers in her arms and grasped one of her hands in his and lifted it to his lips as he said, "Allow me to introduce myself my dear. My name is Lawrence Limberger, perhaps you've heard of me."_

_"I don't own a TV." She lied, feeling that it might be in her best interests to play dumb with a man as creepy as this one and find out what he wanted. His violet eyes widened a little bit and he chuckled and pressed a quick kiss against her knuckles and she jerked her hand from his grasp and wiped it on her jeans as her skin began to crawl._

_"Ah, I see. Well-"_

_"Could you please just tell me why your here, sir. I've got some errands to run."_

_"A lady who cuts right to the heart of the matter, I like that-" The creepy man practically purred as he tried to step closer to her. She stepped back away from him and gave him a mean look that apparently was intimidating enough to stop him in his tracks and prevent him from trying to get close to her again. He gave her a predatory look and cleared his throat and blanked his expression and said. "I was contacted by your doctor about your...uh...little issue-" He said, his eyes flickering from her face to her body. Pausing briefly on her breasts before looking lower._

_Rain flushed in outrage and had to fight herself to keep from planting her fist in his face for lying to her and staring at her breasts. There was no fucking way that any of her doctors would tell a man like this anything about her pregnancy, or anything else. Not without her written consent first._

_Those things were no ones business but her own._

_"And I was wondering if you have thought of what your going to do about it."_

_Her first impulse was to ignore him and start walking away, maybe contact her family and some of her friends and tell them that there was something weird going on and that Mr. Limberger was obviously a part of it. Her second impulse was to file for a restraining order. Her third and final impulse was to tell this man to go fuck himself._

_Again, what she did was no ones business but hers. But his unnatural interest in her baby had sparked her suspicious nature._

_"First of all Mr. Limberger, you insult my intelligence by lying to me about my doctor giving you confidential information regarding my health. Second of all, what I do with the baby is none of your concern. And third of all, you should leave now because our conversation is over." She thrust the flowers back into his arms and then turned and started to walk away when the man reached out and grabbed her arm in a bruising grip and spun her around and growled at her._

_"Now you listen here you little tart, that baby is important and I'm willing to pay you a fortune to give it up for adoption-" Her hand connected with his cheek a second before she lifted her leg and kneed him in the stomach hard enough to force him to double over as his breath left his lungs in a 'whoosh' as she grabbed the lapel of his dark purple jacket and reared back her fist and punched him in the nose then dropped him in disgust as blood started to run down his face._

_Some of it smearing along her knuckles. It was such a bright and vivid red, almost like ketchup. The color made her feel ill as she growled, "I wouldn't give you this baby if the fate of the world itself rested in your hands. Now go away you loser!"_

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Her words had stung him unlike anything he had ever felt before.

Unlike the hatred of his enemies, unlike being exiled from his home planet and stripped of his titles. Her words had hurt him almost as badly as being struck by her delicate hands. They had also sparked something in him.

Anger. Who wouldn't be angry to be called a loser?

Rage. Certainly, being laid low by a woman was _humiliating_ to say the least.

And something unnameable that coiled low in his stomach spreading warmth through his normally cold blood.

He'd had camera's planted in her home while she was out one day so that he could see her. Whenever he found out that she was in debt, he made it disappear. And though he didn't exactly understand the reasons himself, he did know one thing.

He desired the human female. She was just so unexpectedly _vicious _for a human female that she drew out his long suppressed mating instincts. "Carbuckle...make sure that the female lives-" Limberger said all of a sudden, his violet eyes staring unblinking at the slight figure on the screen. Carbuckle sputtered on the other end of the line, trying to choke out the word 'why' when Limberger said.

"I want to try another inter species creation experiment with her... Perhaps a blending of human and Plutarkian this time."

Behind him Throttle went totally still, even the breath in his lungs was totally still for a moment before he let out a loud enraged cry and threw himself against the door of his cage with such force that the entire back of the cage was lifted up off of the floor, tilting dangerously on it's axis as he flung himself back then threw himself forward again and toppled the cage right on top of Limberger before he could think to move.


	4. Chapter 4

Thicker than water-

Chapter 4

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The guys had been missing for hours and Charley was starting to get worried since they usually called or radioed her when they were running late.

She'd been sitting in her living room with a bowl of pop corn and a few root beers patiently waiting for them to show up so that they could watch movies like they did every other night or so, but so far she'd seen neither hide nor hair of them since the night before when they had stayed over because they had simply been too tired to go to the score board.

_Where are they?_ She wondered as she looked at the clock for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past ten minutes or so and frowned as it occurred to her that they might have run into some trouble and could at this moment be laying in a ditch somewhere hurt or dead-

She jumped when she heard the loud roar of their bikes outside and quickly got to her feet and ran down the hall to the front door. She opened it tentatively to check and make sure it was them, and shrieked when a white blur came barreling towards her and Vinny all but tackled her. She staggered back under the force of his body colliding with hers and hit the wall as he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face against her shoulder and just stood there shaking uncontrollably with each breath he took as Modo slipped past them and disappeared some where down the hall.

She caught the briefest glimpse of Throttle as he passed by, his soft tan colored fur was stained a deep rust color, a furious expression on his face and what looked like a disc of some kind was tightly grasped in one hand while he used the other to wipe at the rust colored stains around his face.

Charley blinked at the sight as he walked by without so much as a word and disappeared into the spare room next to her bedroom where she kept her computer and long range radios and such. Vinny's arms tightened around her jolting her from her worried thought as she brought her arms up and wrapped them around the white mouse as he hiccuped, his body shuddering under her hands as it occurred to her that Vinny was crying.

"Vinny? Whats wrong? What happened?" She finally asked after a moment or so.

Vinny didn't say anything. He just held onto her as tightly as he dared and cried his heart out.

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Modo sat in the bedroom that he and his bro's used when they were at the garage with his face buried in his hands.

Oh god, how could Limberger do something like that to them? To those women?

How could he do something so cruel as to create an innocent life with their seed and then let them and their mothers perish? And what about Throttle's young and the woman carrying it? What could Limberger have been thinking to push Throttle's buttons like that?

It was a wonder that the tan furred mouse hadn't killed him when he had toppled his cage, trapping the Plutarkian responsible for hurting them and the innocent women under the heavy cage. Right where he had wanted him.

Right where he could _reach_ him.

And reach him, Throttle had. Both Modo and Vinny had been shocked speechless by the _viciousness_ of their leader's attack on Limberger the second that he had trapped him. Throttle had very nearly ripped the fish alien apart, he had been so enraged...

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Throttle sat at Charley's computer hacking the source of Limberger's video feed so that he could see the mother of his young while trying to pin point her location as he opened a line of communication to Stoker's lair, somewhere out in the Sahara Desert as he unblocked the filters and typed in the stolen passwords to gain access to Limbergers satellites and then sat back as a small image of the dark haired woman appeared on the computer screen.

She was in the middle of another contraction. This one nearly driving her to her knees. Throttle's heart clenched painfully in his chest and he held his breath. Her labor was starting to progress quicker than it should.

He noted that no sooner than the contraction ended another one began, causing his heart to jump up into his throat in alarm as he reached out and grabbed the mic and tried calling Stoker.


	5. Chapter 5

Thicker than water-

Chapter 5

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Stoker was in the middle of taking apart an experimental weapon for study when he heard Throttle's voice coming from the radio room and lifted his head and slipped his safety glasses off and listened to the husky sound of Throttle's voice for a second, detecting tones of pain, anger, and panic in the younger man's voice. He set the weapon that he had been disassembling aside and made his way to the radio and picked up the mic.

"Throttle? Little bro, what's wrong?"

The other end of the line was quiet for a second then he heard Throttle's slightly shaking voice ask, "Stoker are you close to a computer?"

Stoker blinked and looked across the small room at the computer system that he had taken from his ship and rigged to be a part of the scrap computer that he had taken from a dumpster behind a store and fixed. "Yeah, bro. I've got one right here."

"Good. I need you to get on it and help me trace a signal from one of Limberger's satellites-"

Stoker frowned for a second and started to ask 'what for' when Throttle cut him off and said, "_Now, Stoker_. It's a matter of great importance to me." Stoker blinked at the hard edge he detected in the younger man's voice and decided not to ask any more questions for the moment and went over to his computer and started it. It took him a second to do a quick check on which satellite Throttle was trying to trace before he started to run his own tracer program on the signal while he opened a window to _see_ what it was that Throttle was so interested in and frowned when an image of a young woman with dark hair appeared on his screen.

_What the hell?_ He wondered as the woman walked around a little bit then doubled over as if she were in pain. "Uh...Throttle...what is-"

"_You take your eyes off of that video of the woman right fucking now old man!_" Throttle's growl cut him off mid sentence, the furious sound of the younger man's voice causing him to blink a second before he growled back.

"Why the hell should I?"

"_The woman is going to give birth to my young-_" Throttle snapped at him, the possessiveness, worry and just barely leashed anger in the younger man's tone made Stoker flinch as if he'd just been slapped. His eyes wide he stared at the screen for a moment as his mind kicked into overdrive. His bro was going to be a dad. Seriously?

When had this happened? Why hadn't he been told sooner? It wasn't like Throttle to forget to mention something so important as the conception of his first young when he did his usual monthly reports. So why was he just hearing about this now?

"Uh...bro is there _anything_ you'd like to tell me? Anything that you may have forgotten to mention to me prior to today?"

"No."Came Throttle's curt reply. Stoker stared at the screen again.

"Oh so the imminent birth of your fist young isn't something that you'd like to share with your extended family?" Stoker hissed at the younger man who sighed.

"It isn't that I don't want to share the news of becoming a father Stoker. I didn't even know that I was going to_ be_ a father until a few hours ago when Limberger grabbed me, Vinny and Modo." Stoker fell silent for a moment as he mentally went over what Throttle had just said when it occurred to him that if Limberger had known then the reason that Throttle hadn't brought it up before was because of-

A low feral sounding growl escaped his throat. That son of a bitch doctor had something to do with this!

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Rain gasped in pain as the tightening in her lower back and stomach intensified.

_Oh god no! Not now! I'm not ready for this!_ Her mind practically screamed as she felt something inside of her tear a second before she felt something warm and wet trickle down her legs and looked down in comical horror at the pinkish colored puddle at her feet. Either she had just pissed herself or her baby had decided that it was time to get the show on the road.

She made a tsking sound and growled, "God your impatient..." Her daughter didn't get that personality trait from her so she must have gotten it from her father. The sorry bastard. "Just hang tight a little long- OH!" She gasped out as her legs buckled and she sank to the floor, her eyes teared up and she was having trouble breathing as she rubbed her stomach as another contraction started. This one was the strongest she'd felt so far.

_Ow!_ Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Oh god that hurt.

She panted as she wiped at her eyes, determined not to be one of those women who cried once their labor pain really started. She was stronger than that. Or at least she thought she was until another contraction hit her and she screamed and blindly reached out to grab something. _Anything_ would do as long as she could either crush it in her hands or bite down on it.

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"Stoker! Stoker! I think this is it! The baby's coming! Tell me that you have her location!" Throttle's strained sounding voice called out to him as he tried to zero in on the location of the signal. Stoker made a small frustrated sound in the back of his throat and glanced at the image of the woman.

She was laying on the floor now on her back, her face contorted in agony. _Oh boy._ Stoker thought as he typed in something to try and speed up the tracer hoping that he could get a lock on the woman's location sooner when all of a sudden Throttle shouted something drawing his attention away from the tracer and back to the image of the woman just in time to see something making it's way out of the woman's body.

His mind came to a screeching stop as he stared at the reddish, pinkish thing. His eyes widening as his jaw dropped. Holy shit! Throttle's voice sounded again, "I can see it! I can see it!"

Stoker gagged a little bit and slapped his hands over his eyes and peeked out through his fingers while thinking, _So can I! So can I! _"Stoker! Tell me that you have her location!"

"Bro! Stop yelling at me I"m going as fast as I-" His eyes flickered back to the screen against his will and he saw the tiny little shoulders slipping out and blinked his eyes a second before saying in a shaky voice. "I-I d-don't feel s-so well..." A second before everything went black and he fell out of his seat._  
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	6. Chapter 6

Thicker than water-

Chapter 6

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Throttle gripped the corners of the computer desk so tightly that the wood cracked and the bones in his hands started to ache as he watched his young being born. His heart stuttering in his chest as he stared at Rain's sweat covered face and wished that he was there with her to hold her hand.

She opened her mouth and let out what he imagined was a loud _painful_ scream as his young made it's way into the world.

Rain fell back onto the floor and lay there for a moment or so trying to catch her breath before she pushed herself upright as far as she could and slowly and clumsily turned her body so that she could see the baby.

Throttle leaned forward in his seat until his nose was almost pressed up against the glass of the screen as he watched her run her fingers along the bridge of the infants nose to clear the mucus and watched her use the sleeve of her maternity dress to wipe some of the blood and other stuff from his young's skin.

He held his breath, and waited. Seeing the slightly panicked look on her face when the infant remained still. And wondered if like Vinny and Modo's young, his was also dead.

He kept his eyes on the screen as she awkwardly turned the infant over and slipped a hand under it so that it was resting face down over her hand and slapped it hard on the rear. The infant twitched then started to move it's little hands and feet, and he exhaled and leaned back in his seat to watch his young and it's mother for a few more seconds as he came to grips with the fact that he was now a father.

He slowly loosened his grip on the desk and settled his hands in his lap and looked around the room for a moment, his eyes going to the old Felix the cat clock hanging on the wall to his left, noting the time before turning back to the screen and looked at the image of Rain and his young, again. The infant was small like he had first thought it would be perhaps no more than four pounds and three ounces.

He rubbed his face with his hands, shoving his shades aside for a moment so that he could get a grip on himself then dropped his hands away from his face and looked at the screen again. His young.

Oh god he was a father!

His sight blurred and he sobbed. He couldn't help himself. He had never felt such overwhelming sense of _fear_ and _joy_ before. "Stoker... Stoker..._please_ tell me that you have Rain's location... I want to hold my young."

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Holy crap her body hurt!

The muscles in her abdomen and lower back were killing her almost as much as her privates. "Jesus-Mary-and-Joseph, kid. Did you have to be so frigging big?" _She must get_ _her size from her father, damn his black soul._ Rain muttered in a strained tone as she pulled her daughter against her side and absent mindedly counted her little fingers and toes while the infant cried.

She counted the infants fingers and toes several times before the events of the day finally sank in for her.

She was a mother.

She-whom had never liked kids. Was-how the hell had this happened again? A mother-oh dear lord, she was going to eat this adorable and precious little baby alive. _Maybe I should have given her up for adoption? _Rain thought nervously as she put her hand on the little one's chest and made a hushing sound before running the back of her hand along the curve of the infants cheek then started humming as she mentally went over the things that she needed to do before calling it a day.

She needed to tie off the umbilical cord, bathe the baby then clothe and feed it. Then...then she could rest.

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Throttle was more than a little frustrated that Stoker hadn't given him the location of Rain and his young. But figured that there was a good reason and though he was secretly planning to kick the older mouse's tail from now till doomsday, he was loath to move from the computer at the moment.

He was just entranced by the sight of his young cradled against Rain's chest, it's little mouth suckling at her breast while Rain watched the infant's face with a look of awe on her face. He could see that she was tired, and still in pain and he _hated_ that she was hurting because of him _and_ Limberger.

He reached out and ran his finger tips along the screen over Rain's face, then did the same for the little one wishing that he was where they were so that he could touch them.

But first he had to find them and take them someplace safe where he could protect them. _Both._


	7. Chapter 7

Thicker than water-

Chapter 7

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The first month was difficult for Throttle for obvious reasons.

First of all, he broke up with Carbine shortly after coming out of the computer room to tell them that his young had survived it's birth.

Second of all, Limberger had found out that Rain had slipped from his grasp and had been tearing apart Chi-town looking for her and his young. Forcing Throttle to pay him several _violent_ visits in between looking for the woman and his offspring in an effort to get him to back off and leave his family alone.

It didn't work. But at least each beat down gave them a small window of opportunity to search for the woman and infant while Limberger was recovering. Allowing Throttle the time to find a house in the country, with Charley's help, that could be used as a safe house. And to put up security systems and to hide weapons in a hidden room.

It allowed him time to ride around the city with Modo and Vinny with pictures of Rain, made from the disc that Throttle had stolen from Limberger the day of his young's birth, and ask people all around Chi-town if they had seen her.

They'd looked high and low and even drafted Stoker's aid in the search but so far no one had found any traces of Rain Andrews or her baby.

Months passed and nothing changed.

Rain Andrews and the baby remained missing and Throttle was going out of his mind with worry.

The guy just couldn't help himself and Vinny and Modo couldn't really blame him. He was a family man now and anyone who said that martian males didn't have an ounce of paternal instinct in them had never come face to face with a male like Throttle.

The man was nothing _but_ deeply rooted paternal instinct, possessiveness, and protectiveness rolled into one.

Modo and Vinny knew what was going on, it wasn't just his paternal instinct making an appearance. He was embracing _all_ of his instincts. The suppressed darkness and emotion that he usually hid so well was becoming a main part of his personality now.

It was something that happened to a rare majority of males who inevitably became fathers.

They stopped suppressing their more aggressive and darker thoughts and feelings and merged them with their normal personalities in an effort to make themselves_ stronger_ so that they could better defend their mates and their young.

This didn't mean that they were weak to begin with, no, far from it. This just meant that they were being overly cautious.

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Six in a half months later-

Rain ran from one room to another frantically looking for her daughter whom had developed a little bit of a mischievous personality ever since she had started crawling several weeks ago and had taken up the new hobby of going mobile at a moment's notice and driving her sleep deprived mother insane.

She walked into the dining room of her new home and walked over to the table and did a quick peek to see if she could spot her daughter's sky blue shirt. All she saw was cherry wood chairs and white tile.

_Damn_.

"Tinkle-bug, come out, come out where ever you are-" Rain said in a sing song voice as she started to leave the dining room where the hair on the nape of her neck started to stand on end causing her to stop in her tracks and subtly turn her head and look over her left shoulder and saw her daughter peeking at her from around the corner with those peculiar scarlet eyes of hers.

Rain wrinkled her nose a little bit and fought down the impulse to rub the back of her neck as she turned herself a little bit and locked eyes with her daughter.

The baby made a squeaking sound and quickly disappeared from sight again. Rain sighed and mentally counted to ten as she walked through the room, into the kitchen just in time to see her daughter's teeny tiny feet round the corner and disappear back into the hall.

_Oh dear god-_ She thought tiredly as she jogged after the baby hoping to catch her before she found herself a hiding place like last time and slipped in a small barely noticeable puddle on her floor. She shrieked as she fell, landing on her ass on the floor and blinked back tears as she laughed.

"Ow. Ow. Ow..." She wheezed in between peals of laughter as she looked at the floor next to her feet and snickered loudly when she saw that her daughter had ripped off her diaper again. She took several deep breaths and suddenly yelled, "Tinkle-bug! Did you pee on momma's nice clean floor again!"


	8. Chapter 8

Thicker than water-

Chapter 8

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Five years later-

Rain's car pulled up to the ritzy hotel that she and her daughter would be staying in for the next two weeks during the book signing for the mini series that she had started writing and gotten published two years before her pregnancy.

She parked the car and half turned around in her seat and looked back at her daughter, Shira, whom was slumped over in her car seat. Her shoulder length curly chocolate brown hair falling around her angelic little face, the top of her little chin rested on her favorite stuffed animal Mr. Giz. A stuffed rabbit that she had gotten from Rain as a good behavior gift six hundred and thirty miles ago.

Rain reached into the back seat and grasped one of Mr Giz's long floppy ears and gently tugged it out from under Shira's chin causing the little girl to jerk awake instantly. Rain gave an amused smile at her daughters wide eyed look, "Hey tinkle-bug, sleep well?"

Shira blinked her scarlet eyes at her mother and rubbed her eyes with her small hands and yawned. "No. Still sleepy mommy." Shira finally said before flopping back in her car seat and closing her eyes again. Rain reached out and grasped one of her white socks and tugged on it causing her daughter to crack one eye open to glare at her for a second.

"Stop it mommy." It was a simple sentence, not even spoken any louder than a normal tone yet it could stop Rain in her tracks. But not today.

"I wish I could stop tinkle-bug, but I need you awake for now."

"I don't wanna be awake." Shira said simply. Rain giggled.

No, she would imagine the kid didn't want to be awake since Rain had woken her up at five a.m for the past three days just so that she could start the long drive to Chicago early so that she could stop for the night at six in the evening instead of nine or ten. They'd had a lot of miles to cover and Rain had wanted to put as much distance as possible between the town where they had been living and them.

She'd simply been that _excited_ to go back to Chicago despite the fact that she was taking a terrible risk by doing so.

"I know you don't baby but we have a lot of stuff to do. We have to get our room and unpack and then we have to contact your grandparents and arrange for them to meet us somewhere-"

Shira was wide awake now, her small hands going to the seat belt holding her in her car seat so that she could unbuckle it. "Well, then lets go. The faster we get this done the faster _I_ can take a nap." Shira said as she unbuckled the seat belt and then reached out and took the stuffed bunny from her mother's grasp and sat down in the empty seat and waited for her mother to let her out of the car then helped her mom grab their things and then walked into the hotel to check in.

Twenty minutes later, Rain unlocked the door to their room and nearly tripped over her own feet as Shira ran into the room and all but dove onto the large queen sized bed and curled up.

Rain made a snorting sound and dropped her bag and Shira's bag then did a quick walk around the spacious room and checked out everything from the view outside, to the mini fridge, to the bathroom before making her way over to the bed and flopped down on it next to her daughter who made an irritated sound because she was being disturbed again, but automatically settled down when Rain said, "You know what? I'm sort of tired too. How about we both take a nap and then unpack?"

Shira didn't say anything, she just shifted closer to her mother and let her wrap her arms around her while she tried to doze off.

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Stoker was just sitting down to watch some TV and unwind after a long day of working in the lab assembling and disassembling things. He had a bowl of nachos in one hand and nice cold root beer in the other that he was just _dying_ to get into.

He set the nachos on the small coffee table in front of him and picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels, pausing from time to time when something caught his attention.

It looked like the Jerry Springer show at first glance, which was why he stopped and set the remote aside and sat back to eagerly await someone cracking someone else's skull open with a chair when a gorgeous young woman with long dark brown hair, wearing an off cream colored pants suit came walking out onto the stage.

Stoker stared at the screen as he popped the top off of his root beer and took a sip before it occurred to him that he knew the young woman sitting on the black leather seat across from the show host, and spewed what was in his mouth in shock before going into a coughing fit as he jumped to his feet and ran down the hall to the radio room and tried calling Throttle and the boys.

He'd imagine that they would want to know that Rain Andrews had finally surfaced after five long years of searching.

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Charley was messing on her computer when she heard Stoker's voice over the radio and paused what she was doing to listen to him. "Throttle! Bro, I need you to turn your TV to channel one hundred and sixteen, like right_ now_!"

Charley started to pick up the mic and ask the old timer what had him so wound up but never got the chance since he suddenly said, "It's her! It's that woman that you've been looking for! She's on TV!"

Charley blinked and stood up and walked over to the door and leaned out and called, "Hey guys turn the TV on channel one hundred and sixteen!"

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The guys were in the middle of reducing the living room to a war zone because Throttle wanted to watch a documentary on the relationships of parents and their children.

Vinny wanted to watch women's beach Volleyball. And Modo wanted to watch football, but had decided not to fight with throttle for the remote since watching the documentary was obviously important to him.

So important that he was willing to sit on Vinny's chest and growl like a rabid animal to get the younger man to back off and snatched the remote and was about to turn the channel to the documentary when they heard Charley yell from down the hall, and all three went eerily still for a moment before Modo took the remote and changed the channel to one hundred and sixteen.

Throttle made an irritated sound and snatched the remote from Modo and was about to turn the channel when he happened to glance at the screen and saw the face of the woman that had bore his young and froze all over again.

The past five years had been kind to Rain Andrews.

She had been a beauty on the day that she had given birth to his young but now- Now she was hands down the most _gorgeous_ woman Throttle had ever seen before in his life. Her dark hair had been cut so that it no longer fell almost to her waist, and was swept back into a stylish twist and secured in place by a sparkling silver and off cream colored hair barrette, some of the silken strands escaped the twist to flirt with the curve of her cheeks.

Her turquoise eyes seemed to positively glow. And her body...

Her body had filled out nicely, dropping the baby weight and slimming down without losing the enticing curves of her breasts and hips. She smiled and Throttle's mouth went dry as he almost tripped himself while trying to get to his feet as he turned up the volume so that he could hear her speak.

"So your going to be in Chicago around the end of the month for a book signing?" The man asked as he leaned forward in his seat a little bit.

"Yes. I'll be in Chicago for two weeks. Signing books and visiting with fans."

"You refused to do public appearances before. So why choose to start making them now?"

"Actually my kid talked me into it-" Rain admitted almost shyly.

"That must have taken a while."

"Weeks and weeks of non stop talking. I finally couldn't take anymore." Rain said with a playful grin as she propped her chin up on her hand. The man laughed and then said.

"Sounds bad. Well, thank you for coming and I hope that the book signing goes well."

"Thank you for having me." Rain said pleasantly as she shook the mans hand as she stood up.


	9. Chapter 9

Thicker than water-

Chapter 9

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The next morning Vinny and Modo rolled out of bed at nine forty five and found Throttle sitting on his bed, already showered and dressed in a pair of leather pants. Several weapons were laid out on his bed along with some other things and he seemed to be gearing up like he was expecting trouble.

He picked up a switch blade and flicked it open and checked the blade then flicked it closed again and slipped it in one of his back pockets.

"Throttle?"

"Hn."

"What are you doing bro?" Modo asked in a drowsy voice as he walked past his leader's bed. Throttle paused what he was doing to look up at him for a second, a dark look on his face.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He asked, his smoky husky voice never changing in pitch despite the note of irritation in it.

"It looks like your going to get arrested." Modo said dryly as he walked out the door, missing Throttle's amused laugh followed by the comment that it would be a cold, cold day in hell before the cops _caught_ him.

Vinny showered first, taking twenty minutes to make sure that he was squeaky clean before getting out of the shower and drying himself off as best as he could before slipping on the clothes that he had grabbed from the laundry room before going into the bathroom.

He pulled on his jeans and then stepped out into the hallway so that Modo could have the bathroom while he pulled his shirt over his head then meandered off to get either something for breakfast or some coffee.

Less than fifteen minutes later Vinny was in the kitchen eating a doughnut when Throttle came walking by wearing his shades, a long leather jacket and his thick soled leather biker boots.

Vinny started to open his mouth to ask where he was going but Throttle beat him to it and said, "I'm going on ahead." As he disappeared into the garage and five minutes later his bike pulled out of the garage.

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Rain walked into the book store where she would be spending the next few days signing books and looked around. The store itself wasn't that impressive. It was smaller than most in the area but held a cozy sort of charm that she found endearing. There was a huge book section to her left and a small cafe to her right that she was just dying to hit for a brownie and some juice before she had to sit down.

She was about to head over to the cafe when she felt a slight tug on the hem of her shirt and looked down at Shira who very promptly held her little hand out and demanded, "I-pod."

_Ah, she's so eager to escape my side. I must really be boring._ Rain thought in amusement as she dug the I-pod out of her pants pocket and started to hand it to her daughter but stopped at the last second and pulled back slightly and asked, "And what will you be doing while I work?"

"Looking for some sucker to marry you-" Rain nudged her daughter's shoulder and glared at her in mock anger.

"I don't need a husband. And even if I did, I wouldn't marry someone that _you_ chose for me."

Shira made a face at her as she nudged her shoulder and asked again, "Now what will you be doing?" Shira must have noticed the warning tone she used to ask her the same question, because this time she was feeling a little less inclined to joke around.

"I will be in exile in the childrens books. Sitting in my seat and pretending to be a ghost until you come to get me. I'm not to leave my seat for _any_ reason aside from using the bathroom and getting snacks."

"Or?" Rain prompted and Shira sighed and stuffed her little hands in her overall pants pockets and kicked a foot at an imaginary rock and said.

"Or you'll give me to the gypsies."

Rain smiled in amusement and dangled the I-pod in front of Shira's face and nearly lost her hand when the five year old snatched it from her and stuffed it in one of her pockets and walked away muttering darkly under her breath.

"Give me to the gypsies indeed. She only uses that threat because she knows that I _hate_ gypsies. And who can blame me after watching the Wolfman movie. They're creepier than clowns."

Rain laughed softly and shook her head as she watched her daughter disappear then went to the cafe and bought an orange juice and three fudge brownies before walking to the area of the store where she was supposed to be signing books and paused and almost turned and left when she saw the sheer number of people standing eagerly in line to have her sign their books.

She walked over to the designated seat that the store owner had put together for her along with a small table sitting next to several book displaying her early works and some of her newest works, and politely waved to the people standing there waiting on her as she awkwardly took her seat, and set aside her juice and brownies so that she could work.

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Throttle pulled into the store parking lot and parked his bike in the back close to the the fire exit and climbed off of his bike and pulled off his helmet and set it aside. He couldn't believe that he would be seeing the mother of his young up close today.

And if the good lord willed it- perhaps he'd even be_ leaving_ with her on his bike a little later on.

He absent mindedly ran his fingers through his thick hair and mentally double checked the way he was dressed. Leather certainly wasn't what you wanted to wear when making a good impression on a lady. Especially when said lady was the mother of his young, but it was far more comfortable to him than a suit and tie.

And despite everything- it _would_ make a lasting impression on her.

He just wasn't sure if that impression was going to be good or not.

He walked to the front of the store and stepped through the tempered glass door and did a quick visual sweep of the store as several people turned and looked at him and then hastily grabbed their things and moved to another part of the store.

Throttle's lips curved up in a humorless smile. _That's right, run away_. He thought as he walked over to the counter and smiled at the kid standing there with a horrified deer caught in the headlights look on his face.

His scarlet eyes flickered to the kid's name tag noting his name before he spoke. "Hello Kevin-" The kid squeaked out a really high pitched, alarmed sounding.

"H-Hello..."

"Could you tell me where the book signing is?"

Kevin pointed towards the reading area hidden behind some book shelves, in the middle of the store and Throttle turned and walked back that way but paused around the children's section when he smelled something vaguely familiar.

He started to go see where the scent was coming from, but stopped himself. Figuring that Vinny or Modo might get curious and check out the source of the scent when they got there.

He took one last subtle breath and committed the scent to memory then started walking again, missing the odd look that he got from a little girl with eerily similar scarlet eyes.

He walked back to the area that the kid behind the counter had pointed him too and stopped when he noticed the people in line, and followed the trail to the desk up front where he could see the woman that he had looked for these past five years.

He stood there staring at her for a second before noticing the book displays and moved to stand in front of one and picked up a paper back and looked it over. It had a half naked man and woman on the cover.

Throttle felt the need to roll his eyes in disdain. _Oh dear god- Don't tell me that she writes this nonsense. _He thought as he checked out the name of the author. The author was someone by the name Anna Reeds.

He looked back at the line and noticed that several people in the line were holding the same book that he had in his hand and sighed. Oh goddamn it. It looks like he was going to have to stand in line with this book just so that he could talk to her.

He grabbed three more books and got in line. Earning some funny looks from some of the people in front of him and even more from the people who got into line behind him.

He was in line for a total of twenty five minutes before the line seemed to shrink down until he was behind a woman who was getting her book signed while positively _gushing_ about how much she had looked forward to meeting her favorite author face to face.

Rain smiled and made some humming sounds from time to time as the woman talked and finally after what felt like forever, Rain handed the woman her books and said, "I'm glad that your having such a nice day, Miss Evens."

Miss Evens seemed to glow at being referred by her name from her favorite book author and gave an enthusiastic wave to Rain who waved back as the woman walked off.

Throttle put his books on the table and got a startled look from Rain as she looked up at him before saying, "Oh my..." In a breathless tone as her eyes widened a little bit. He smiled at her and looked her over.

He had thought that she was gorgeous before on the TV, but up close she was_ beyond_ gorgeous. She was absolutely stunning in her silver colored pants suit with her long dark hair curling around her face, shoulders and back.

"Um...w-who do I make t-this out too?" She asked nervously as she picked up one of the books and flipped it open and picked up her pen and looked up at him anxiously as she chewed on her bottom lip and waited for him to say something.

It took Throttle a second or so to reply. And when he did he could have kicked himself for saying, "Honey you can call me whatever you want as long as you promise to come home with me later-" She looked up at him wide eyed and flushed a cute pink color and dropped her pen as she gaped at him in shock.

He supposed that he'd gape too if he were in her position. Especially since he'd just embarrassed her.

He mentally back tracked a little bit and went over what he had just said and cringed. Oh shit, could he be any more disrespectful to the mother of his young? Did he have to act like she was just _some_ chick that he was trying to pick up in a bar?

His thoughts must have showed in his expression, or maybe it was simply a part of her personality. Whatever the reason, her soft amused laughter gave him the impression that she wasn't offended.

Much.

"That has to be the corniest pick up line I've heard in a long time." She snickered and he took a relieved breath before saying.

"Stick around honey, I'm sure that I can come up with worse."


	10. Chapter 10

Thicker than water-

Chapter 10

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_He mentally back tracked a little bit and went over what he had just said and cringed. Oh shit, could he be any more disrespectful to the mother of his young? Did he have to act like she was just some chick that he was trying to pick up in a bar?_

_His thoughts must have showed in his expression, or maybe it was simply a part of her personality. Whatever the reason, her soft amused laughter gave him the impression that she wasn't offended._

_Much._

_"That has to be the corniest pick up line I've heard in a long time." She snickered and he took a relieved breath before saying._

_"Stick around honey, I'm sure that I can come up with worse."_

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After that Throttle became oddly quiet and just stood there with his arms crossed and looked around the store then letting his eyes flicker briefly to the woman in front of him while she wrote in the books that he had grabbed.

He'd already made an ass of himself. He was bound and determined not to do it again as Rain finished writing in the books and neatly piled them one on top of the other and set them in front of him and gave him a smile. "There. All done. You have a good day alright, doll."

Throttle reached out to pick up the books and instead grasped her hands in his and leaned down a little bit until his face was a few inches from her own and said in a slightly husky voice. "I'd have a better day if you'd let me talk to you some more." Rain flushed and stared at him wide eyed as she pulled her hands free of his grasp and said very firmly.

"I don't talk to strangers. It's generally dangerous to encourage people I don't know to talk to me."

Throttle's lips curved up in a small smile. It was understandable that she wouldn't wish to talk to someone she didn't know. He'd heard stories of celebrities with fanatic fans who try to hurt and kill them, and since she was a single mother she had to be doubly cautious about who she talked too. One wrong move could put her life and the life of their child in danger.

"I understand-" He said after a second or so as he dug inside of his inner jacket pocket and set a card with the Last Chance Garage logo on it down on the table and then grabbed her ink pen and quickly jotted down the number for his personal cell phone and handed it to her. "But just in case you ever do want to talk. Here's my number. You can call me any time day or night." He said as he slid the card across the table to her.

She looked down at it then back at him and started to shake her head and say no, but his next words stopped her cold. "Take the card Rain. You never know when you might need to use it." He saw her eyes widen as all of the color drained from her face and felt like a total bastard for scarring her but hadn't realized that he had called her by her real name until it was already out.

Rain couldn't believe that this guy that had walked in off of the streets knew who she was. It was nigh impossible for someone to find out her real name unless they dug around in her past. The name Limberger slithered through her mind and she started to get to her feet to demand the man's name when she heard Shira's voice as she came running up with a book clutched tight in her little hands. "Mommy! Look what I found! It's the Grim brothers original version of Snow White!"

Rain knelt down as her daughter attached herself to her and ran her fingers in Shira's dark hair as she glared at the man whom was standing perfectly still in an imitation of a statue a few feet away with a wide eyed, shocked look on his face before he seemed to catch himself and blanked his expression before saying, "Cute kid." Then turned and walked away.

Throttle dropped the books about half way to the door and kept on walking, his hands were shaking _badly_ and he was clenching his teeth hard as he fought an internal battle with himself so that he wouldn't go back there and pick up his young and hold her for the first time. He'd already drawn Rain's attention to himself, he couldn't afford to push her further and cause her to run from him.

Because if that happened he may never find her or their young again.


	11. Chapter 11

Thicker than water-

Chapter 11

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"Mom, who was that guy?" Shira asked in a hushed tone as she turned her head and watched the man disappear among the sea of book shelves and people, her garnet red eyes narrowed a little bit.

"I don't know baby." Rain said as she picked her daughter up and sat back down in her seat and arranged her daughter so that she was sitting in her lap. Shira made a soft humming sound and leaned back against her mother while some part of her mind nagged at her about the man's scent.

It was eerily similar to her own.

Far too much like her own actually.

It made her just a little bit uncomfortable to know that there was someone else in the world with the same scent as her own but she knew deep down that the only reason they smelled similar was because they were related to each other through blood. Which meant that chances were good that the man was either her_ father_ or _kin_ to her father since she got her scent from him instead of her mother.

She made another humming sound and made a mental note to corner the guy and demand some answers the next time she saw him. And god help him if he decided to hold out on her because she may be small but she was _mean_ and wasn't above bleeding someone to get what she wanted.

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Throttle leaned his back against the brick of the book store and pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket and dialed Modo's number and put the phone up to his ear and took several deep breaths in an effort to calm himself down while the phone rang.

It rang five times before he heard Modo pick up and growl, "What?" Into the other end of the receiver.

"Did I catch you eating or something?"

There was a pause from the other end. Apparently Modo was considering his answers before giving them. What did he think Throttle was going to do to him if he said yes? Reach through the phone and strangle him? Throttle snorted in amusement as Modo finally answered. "I was drinking some coffee actually. The shower didn't wake me up like I thought it would."

"No big bro, I was just calling to let you both know that I made contact with Rain and even saw my young for a second."

"Really-" Modo said in a slightly excited tone before asking, "Well don't just clam up on me bro! Do I have a nephew or niece? What does the little tyke look like?"

Throttle felt his lips twitch a little bit and sighed before saying, "She takes after her mother in looks. Dark hair, pale skin. Pretty. She'll be breaking hearts once she's older."

"No shit. A little girl huh. Wow-" Modo said with a note of awe in his voice as Throttle caught the faint sounds of one of the dining room chairs creaking as the gray mouse sat down in it. "And she takes after her mom?"

"As far as I could tell she did. Why?"

"Well have you considered that since she looks like her mom, she may have your personality and territorial impulses?"

Throttle held the phone away from his ear and blinked at it. No that hadn't occurred to him at all. In fact now that Modo had pointed that out to him, he felt torn between swearing and crying. Gods if his young had his personality she was going to be a _nightmare_ to raise!

Heaven knew that _he_ had been at that young age.

He bit back a groan and put the phone back up to his ear and hissed, "Jesus Christ Modo are you trying to kill me. Don't even joke about that shit."

Modo chuckled and said, "Sorry bro but it _had_ to be said. You need to be prepared just in case, ya know."

Throttle made a humming sound and leaned his head back against the bricks. "I guess..."

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Shira wasn't supposed to be gone for more than a second or so since she had lied and said that she needed to go to the bathroom so that she could take a quick look around the store and see if she could find that strange man that smelled like her.

She figured that she would have a minute, maybe five since there was a really long line of people waiting for her mom to sign their books. Which meant that she could search unhindered but needed to be back with in her mother's sight by the time the five minutes were up.

It seemed easy enough in theory since she was sure that the man was still around. There had simply been something about his manner that had looked _possessive_ to her when she had been observing him while he had tried to talk to her mother.

She walked to the front of the store and stopped just shy of the door and stood there for a second sniffing the air and not really paying attention to who was coming or going. She was too focused on the slightly spicy/musky scent that ended at the door.

She chewed her bottom lip for a second or so and shifted from foot to foot anxiously and wrinkled her nose a little bit as she made a quick decision to check outside before she needed to go back to her mom.

She pushed the door open and slipped out of the store and looked around for a second before catching the man's scent and following it to the side of the building and stopped when she saw him standing there on the phone.

It occurred to her that leaving the store might not have been such a great idea. But she ruthlessly pushed the thought aside and walked up to him, making sure to stay as quiet as possible so that she wouldn't startle him.

The last thing she needed was to be kicked in the face or something. So she just stood there with her arms crossed, staring at him as he took his cell phone away from his ear and hung up before he noticed that she was standing there at his feet.

He blinked down at her and slowly closed the cell before asking, "You need something sweetheart?"

Shira felt a swell of annoyance towards the man and had to tamp down on the sudden impulse to kick him in the shin or punch him in the crotch or something. It was childish to strike someone without provocation yet her palms itched to strike the man just the same.


	12. Chapter 12

Thicker than water-

Chapter 12

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Throttle blinked down at his daughter and slowly closed the cell before asking tentatively, "You need something sweetheart?" While trying to figure out what the girl was doing outside of the store and away from her mother when it would be easy for any Tom Dick or Harry to simply drive up and grab her.

She looked at him through garnet red eyes and he nearly scrambled away from her. His fur bristled and stood on end for a second as she gave him a smile that had subtle under tones of cruelty to it.

_Oh shit-_ He thought as Modo's words came back to haunt him. Looks like his baby girl did have his personality after all. Which meant that she probably had his territorial impulses too.

"Who are you? And don't think that you can lie to me and get away with it-" A question followed by a threat. _Awesome_. This wasn't exactly how he pictured his first conversation with his young.

"I'm..." He wracked his brain for an accurate answer. Maybe one that would allow him a little more time to prepare telling her and her mother who he was, but was coming up blank.

"Think _carefully_ before you say the word 'no one' and consider what will happen if I scream kidnapper or pedo." The girl said in a dark tone and Throttle got a look of shock that could easily be mistaken for comical horror on his face as he thought warily, _Well that's one way to confirm who she gets her personality from. _

Dear god the next few years were going to be hell on him. Especially since the only one who could reign her in was her mother and he was fairly certain that _she_ didn't like him much at the moment.

"Uh- Well it's like- I'm-" He started to pull a Darth Vader and say 'I am your father' but after a second or so he knew that he'd sound rather ridiculous if he said it like that, so he chose to try and shift her attention to more pressing matters and snapped, "I'm going to ignore that question for now. What the hell are you doing out here kid? Does your mother know that your out here?"

He saw a funny look cross the little one's face and nearly smirked. _Oh, so it was like that huh._

She must have snuck out of the store without her mother's knowledge. Throttle was of half a mind to grab her by the scruff of the neck and drag her back into the store and hand her to her mother and tell her to keep a better eye on their daughter. But knew that doing so would only upset Rain further and effectively end his chances of ever building a life with her and being a part of his daughter's life as well.

"Mind your own business_ man_." The little girl snarled at him, her expression mean. Throttle's lips twitched as he thought. _One day you find out that you have a young, then years later you meet that young and said young threatens you... Ah, good times. _

He'd be sure to pay Modo back ten fold for this fucking jinx. Especially since he had been the one to point out the potential disaster.

"I am minding my own business, bratling." He said affectionately after a second or so causing the child to hiss at him like a cat.

Outrage written all over her face and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing even as his fingers itched to grab the front of her shirt and jerk her off of her feet so that he could head butt her like his mother had used to do to him when he had talked to her so disrespectfully.

"I'm not a brat!"

"You look like a brat-" He said teasingly. A smirk curving his lips.

"Watch your mouth old man!"

"You kind of sound like a brat too-" Throttle commented as he scratched behind his left ear.

The kid gaped at him for a second before shrieking, "So help me god if you call me a brat one more time-"

"Brat, brat, brat, brat, brat. Hey lets make a song out of it. There was one a kid who was a brat-"

"**_Semper Fi asshole, I'm going to destroy you!_**"

Throttle stopped trying to serenade his daughter and got a dark look on his face at her use of language. "Does you're mother know that you use such unlady like language?" Throttle growled at his daughter. The girl looked taken aback by his question for a second before growling at him.

He rolled his eyes at her antics, his patience wearing thin when she lunged at him. He reacted quickly. And maybe without thinking-

Lifting one of his feet and stopped her lunge by planting his foot against her chest. There was no pressure behind the action. No force or strength to speak of since she was-what- Two feet tall to his six foot eight? Couple that with the fact that he wasn't actually trying to hurt her and he supposed that he might have been doing okay if she hadn't fallen down and automatically started crying as if he had just kicked her puppy or something.

His fur stood on end for a moment as his blood pressure spiked in alarm. Oh shit, had he just hurt her? He wondered as he shifted away from the wall and dropped to one knee beside the sobbing little girl feeling ten times an ass for making her cry and started to reach out to pick her up so that he could look her over when she flipped herself up on her feet and threw her small body against his chest and smirked at him a second before she opened her mouth and sank her sharp little teeth into his shoulder.

Shira knew it was petty to pull such a fast one on the guy, but she really didn't like being made fun of. When she said she was going to destroy someone, she meant it.

The guy yelped and started to grab her when she let go of his shoulder and reared back her little hand and slapped him as hard as she could-


	13. Chapter 13

Thicker than Water-

Chapter-13

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Throttle hadn't expected to go back into the book store so soon.

But he didn't really see a way around it once he had managed to shake off his young and restrain her. He needed her mother to take her and if that meant walking up to the female bleeding from several bite wounds-

Well he supposed that his ego could take the hit since he'd already more or less gotten his ass kicked by his own daughter.

He walked into the book store carrying the squirming, furious little girl under his arm like a football with her arms trapped at her sides and walked back to where her mother was and reached over and carefully slipped his free hand under the childs hair and grasped the back of her shirt and without making any excuses or apologies to the people in line walked up to Rain and dangled her daughter in front of her face and growled in an annoyed voice.

"This yours." Rain jerked in her seat and looked up at her daughter's face for a second before jumping out of her chair and snatching Shira from him and instantly started to look her over for injury as Throttle used the back of his hand to wipe the blood from his busted lip.

"Shira! Sweetheart are you alright?" Rain asked in an anxious tone while shooting Throttle dirty looks.

"The little hellion is fine. She's not the one bleeding over here." Throttle muttered dryly before he felt a pair of hands grasp the lapels of his jacket and jerk him down a little bit. He tipped his head a little bit and sucked in a breath when he came face to face with the angry mother of his young before she snarled at him.

"You better pray that I don't find a single scratch buddy. Or getting your ass handed to you by a five year old will be the _least_ of your worries." Throttle bristled slightly at what Rain was implying. He had done everything he could_ not_ to hurt the kid; and he was still getting reamed. What the fuck?

"I didn't lay a hand on her except to bring her back in here to you! And FYI, lady, if you watched her more _closely_ then she wouldn't have snuck outside-" Throttle reprimanded her for not watching their daughter well enough.

"Don't you yell at my mommy-" Shira growled angrly at him as she attached herself to his leg before addressing her mother. "Let me kill him mommy! I have tons of closet space where we can hide the body!"

Rain looked down at her daughter and let go of his jacket so that she could try to pry the blood thirsty little demon from his leg while saying. "Oh no Shira. You're not killing him. That's my job. Besides, I'm grounding you for leaving the store without me or my permission."

Throttle snorted. Rain must be incredibly naive to think that simply grounding the kid would keep her in line. What Shira needed was a firmer hand and a little more discipline.

_What she needs is her father. _His mind hissed at him and before he even realised what he was doing he reached out and took Shira from her mother and turned her in his grasp so that she was facing him and growled, "_Stop_ _giving your mother a hard time_."

He would have given her a light smack on the bottom too, but Rain snatched their daughter from him and gave him a mean look as she cuddled the child against her chest and rubbed her back in a soothing manner. As if she thought their daughter might be upset. Throttle himself didn't think the brat would get _upset_ simply by being growled at.

"Shira, why don't you go sit down and read something while-"

"Throttle."

"Throttle and I have a little chat."


	14. Chapter 14

Thicker than Water-

Chapter-14

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Throttle half walked, half staggered behind Rain with his tail thrashing in irritation while he mentally swore. _God in heaven-_ He was starting to think that the mother of his young was more like him than even he cared to admit. Which might explain why his young was such a _vicious_ bloodthirsty little tyrant.

He might have thought it over a little more if he hadn't felt Rain pull painfully on his ear to maneuver him over to a chair that she had just pulled out for him then let go of him and shoved him down into the seat before he could react.

He rubbed his throbbing ear and glanced up at Rain while she pulled out the seat across from his own and gracefully took her seat. "Now that we're away from _most_ prying eyes, Mr. Throttle. Why don't you explain to me what the hell you were doing with my daughter? And how you know who I am. _Before_ I decide to call the cops and have you arrested."

Throttle stopped rubbing his sore ear and stared at her for a moment while thinking in amusement, _Well she doesn't beat around the bush. Does she?_ He admired that in a woman.

He held up one finger and took asecond or so to think before Rain growled at him, impatient for an explination. "Well? I'm waiting."

"Just a sec, Miss Andrews. I need a second to think about how to explain things to you without frightening you more than you already are."

Rain bristled a little bit at his tone. "I'm _not_ scared of you." She said in an icy tone as she glared at him. Throttle's lips curved up in a small smile as he mused, _No you wouldn't be._ And rightly so since he was one of the few people who would never do anything to hurt her or her daughter.

"Let me start at the beginning-" Throttle said after a moment or so before continuing, "My name is Throttle Thornboy...and several years ago you were, uh...impregnated mysteriously and..." He paused and scratched behind one of his ears and looked uncomfortable. "I-I-I'm...not sure how to say this- It's just so weird. But um, y-you had my kid..." He said the last part in a rush and looked at Rain to see if she was still following his explination.

She had a wide eyed look on her pretty face for a second before her expression blanked. "Say that again." Throttle flinched at the fury in her tone and tried not to squirm in his seat as he met her eyes.

"I-I'm Shira's dad." He said lamely and waited for Rain to react.

He wasn't disappointed, though he would have liked to avoid the hard slap he got across his face for his efforts. His head jerked to the side violently as his cheek started to burn and throb where her hand had connected with his face.

"Ow!"

"How dare you-" Throttle blinked back tears as he looked at rain and rubbed his cheek.

Ouch, christ. The woman was more violent than he had initally thought. It wasn't that he didn't think that she wouldn't be. I mean, she had been raising his young alone for the past few years so it _had_ occurred to him that she would react violently to knowing that he was around.

He just wished that he had seen her hand coming at his face so that he could have ducked. "How dare you waltz in here off the streets and claim to be my daughter's father!"

"It's not a claim. It's the truth. And I didn't waltz anywhere. I walked here-Omff!" She slapped him again, this time with enough force to nearly knock him out of his chair. Which impressed the hell out of him considering that there weren't any females to date that could pull such a feat.

He took a second to open and close his mouth to make sure that she hadn't broken his jaw and pulled himself upright in his seat and flattened his ears back against his head feeling torn between crying and...well crying, but for a totally different reason.

"Could you _please_ stop hitting me?" He asked as nicely as he could give the circumstances, but his temper was dangerously close to exploding due to the ass kicking he'd recieved from his daughter.

And now the ass kicking his young's mother was giving him, was pushing his limits considerably.

"Could you please stop lying to me?" Rain snarled at him as she got up from her seat. Throttle made an irritated sound and got to his feet so that he towered over her, hoping that the drasic change in height might cool her temper a bit and make her a little more aware of the fact that if he were a sadistic bastard, he could hurt her easily.

Unfortuantly she misread him and his intention as a threat of some sort and before he could react she laid him out flat with some sort of karate move that he never saw coming. She snarled something at him as he lay on his back on the floor of the cafe, his eyes impossibly wide over the rim of his skewered shades, a stunned/shocked look on his face as he thought,

_Ah. Now it makes sense._


	15. Chapter 15

Thicker than water-

Chapter-15

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Limberger was giddy with anticipation when his mini limo pulled up to the book store.

It had been five years since he had last seen the Andrews woman. Five years since she had given birth to his mortal enemys child and then disappeared. Five long, frustrating years that he had waited patiently for her to reappear so that he could capture her again.

He was dying to get his hands on her. He was dying to try another species splicing experiment.

He'd already decided that Thornboy wasn't good enough for her. He was scum. Limberger would kill him soon enough then he would get rid of Thornboys offspring.

But the woman- Ah, she was something special. She was the only human in the world worthy of bearing _his_ young and ruling the world by his side.

Greasepit walked up to the back door and opened it for him. Limberger took a moment to straighten his black silk tie and smooth down his slate grey suit jacket and picked up the flowers that he had brought for his future mate.

Just because the woman was human didn't mean that he had to act like a barbarian towards her. Doing so would only ensure that she would fight him more. There was simply no point. So he would play the gentlman, he would woo her with flowers and riches and give her whatever her little heart desired.

Then he would have her.

"Are you sure that you want to do this boss?" Greasepit asked curiously as he straightened his spine and scanned the street before adding. "One of the goons spotted Thornboy hanging around earlier."

Limberger glanced at the shorter man for a moment as he closed his car door. "Oh?" Limberger said, not the least bothered by Greasepit's warning. If Thornboy was sniffing around Miss Andrews then it might be fun to tweak the vermin's nose a bit. Perhaps he could announce his engagement to the woman in front of the giant rodent.

Yes. That might be fun.

It would certainly upset the rodent. Maybe cause him to make a mistake. He walked towards the store, pausing only briefly to see if Greasepit was following before looking down at the silvery, pale pink, white and purple bouquet held in the crook of his arm.

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Modo called at the worst times.

Throttle thought in irritation as he took the paper towel that one of the employees had been kind enough to give him once he had managed to pick himself up off of the floor and realise that his nose was bleeding, away from his face and stared at the bright crimson stain for a second before putting his cell phone up to his ear and greeting him.

"Hello Modo."

There was a pause from the other end of the line that was drowned out by the roar of two distinct bike engines. "Hi, I was just calling to see how things were going? Have you met Rain yet?"

"Oh we've met alright..." Throttle said before pausing and thinking, _We met, we disagreed, she hates my guts and even kicked my ass. All in all I've had a very productive day._

"So how did it go? Your meeting her, I mean."

"Uh...not well."

"Oh? What happened?" Modo asked curiously, his tone somewhat amused. As if he had known that Rain Andrews would just _hate_ the very sight of him the second he walked up to her. Throttle took the phone away from his ear long enough to curl his lips back from his teeth and give a silent snarl at it before replacing it against his ear.

He was about to answer his bro when he heard the ding of the store's front door opening and smelled the distinct, nauseating aroma that followed Limberger around like a bloody plague. He growled low in his throat and turned his head just in time to see the stink fish walk past the cafe, towards the back of the store.

_Shit._ Throttle thought as he jumped to his feet so quickly that he over turned his chair.

His phone forgotten in his hand, he started walking back to where Rain was. Making sure to keep ten or so steps behind Limberger so that he could observe him as he picked up a book from one of the displays and then walked to the end of the line in front of Rain's table and stood there with an infuriating smug grin on his face.

Rain looked up from signing a book for one of her fans and noticed Throttle standing off to the side, his expression murderous, his hands tightly fisted at his sides. She frowned and wondered if he was so pissed at her for hitting him when she realized that he wasn't looking at her. It only looked that way because she couldn't see his eyes at first.

His shades slipped down a little bit and she could see the vivid _furious_ scarlet staring a hole through someone or something at the end of the line of fans that had come to get their books signed.

She looked away from him and nervously closed the book that she had just signed and handed it to the woman standing there waiting on her and gave her a forced smile and politely told her to have a nice day then waved at her to send her on her way then when the next woman stepped up and dropped ten books in front fo her she leaned over a little bit to look around her and nearly fell out fo her chair when she saw Lawrence Limberger standing at the end of the line with one of her books in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in another.

"Oh bloody hell." Rain muttered before looking back at Throttle with a panicked expression on her face. He looked away from Limberger to glance at her for a moment then held up one finger then disappeared.


	16. Chapter 16

Thicker than water-

Chapter-16

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Throttle walked around one of the shelves and tried to regain control of the _seething_ rage churning in his gut. He glanced over the top of the shelf at Limberger's profile and had the nearly overwhelming urge to pick up the book shelf he was standing beside and throw it at the Plutarkian's head.

And he might have done just that if there hadn't been so many humans around that could get hurt if he did. Which meant that he'd have to try getting Rain away from Limberger in a more subtle and devious fashion.

He looked towards Rain, sitting at her table trying hard to ignore the Plutark's presence. But he could see her hands shaking as she signed the books and awkwardly fumbled with them for a moment before handing them back to the person in front of her.

His heart ached for her. Really it did.

He would do _anything_ to erase the sudden traces of fear and anxiety in her features. He took his eyes off of his woman for a moment and scanned the area around Rain, searching for his daughter. He suddenly had the impulse to track her down and cuddle her against his chest even though he knew that she'd probably scratch his eyes out if he tried.

His young was as ruthless and mean spirited as her mother...

Which made her a perfect candidate to get her mother away from Limberger. He turned and quickly made his way towards the childrens section of the store, a devious smile curving his lips as he spotted the little spitfire sitting in one of the small chairs looking bored.

"Aw, did mummy ditch you?" He asked in a slightly mocking tone as he walked up. The little girl tipped her head back and looked up at him, scowled and then hissed.

"Haven't I hurt you enough for one day?"

Throttle shrugged his shoulders and grinned. "What can I say? I'm up for round two." And just to seem eager he rubbed his hands together in a comical villainous fashion. Shira didn't look impressed. In fact she looked downright disgusted with him.

It might have hurt his pride if he had cared about her opinion at the moment. But right now all he cared about was getting her and her mother away from Limberger.

"You must be one of those weird guys that mommy told me to avoid-" Throttle got an odd look on his face and wondered what Shira meant when the girl said. "The kind that loves being knocked around... Mommy said that that was all well and good if the guy had the mental capacity of a _snail_ and wanted to flirt. But getting kinky is best done in the bedroom."

Throttle's eyes nearly bugged right out of his head as his jaw dropped. Rain _wouldn't_ have told Shira that! It was too adult! And Shira was only five. Did she even understand what she was saying?

_Oh Rain, honey, you and I have got some serious talking to do later on._ Throttle thought darkly as he snapped. "Don't say crap like that! Someone might mistake you for a thirty year old instead of a five year old."

Again, Shira looked less than impressed with him. "Just tell me what you want then go away."

Throttle sighed and knelt down in front of her so that they were eyes level. "I need you to get your mom out of here." Shira narrowed her eyes at him and waited for him to explain his reasons.

"There is a guy here. He wants to take your mother away from you. He means to hurt her very badly, and maybe use you to do it. I need you to fake being sick, or to run up to her crying. Hell, throw a hissy fit the likes of which the world has never seen. I don't care how you do it. _Just do it_."

Shira leaned forward in her seat until her little nose was almost touching his and reached out and in a surprisingly gentle move, removed his shades from his nose and folded them. "I'll do what you say, but first I want to honestly know... Who are you? What right do you have to butt into our lives?"

Throttle looked a little startled as he stared into scarlet eyes that were a mirror image of his own and nervously licked his lips and said, "I'm your dad. I've been looking for you and your mother for a very long time."

Shira leaned in a little more and pressed the tip of her little nose against his, her expression blank as she stared at him for asecond before smirking. "I knew you were related to me in _some_ way. We smell alike."

"We should. You get your scent from me."

"Just so you know, I don't really trust you."

"I know. And that's fine." Throttle said softly as he moved back a little bit and let Shira get up. The second her little feet were on the floor she straightened her spine and flipped her dark hair in an arrogant manner and said cheerfully.

"I'll help you get mommy away from the guy you mentioned. But don't think that I'm doing this for you. I couldn't care less if your my dad or not. I refuse to hand my mommy over to someone_ I_ don't approve of."

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Modo tapped the side of his bike helmet and waited. Again all he was getting was static.

He tapped his helmet again and made a frustrated sound and turned to Vinny. _"What's wrong?"_ The younger man asked anxiously. Modo shook his head. He hadn't the faintest clue what was going on. One second he'd been talking to Throttle and the next-

Nothing.

No answer. No reply. No sound.

The static had been a small welcome change since the silence had started to get on his nerves. _"I dunno. One second we're talking and the next we aren't."_

_"Something could have happened."_ Vinny pointed out. Modo opened his mouth to snap at him but stopped when he realized that Vinny was right. There was just so many things that could go wrong. Especially if Limberger had found out that the Andrews woman was in town.

_"Then we need to get there. Like now." _Modo said as he applied more gas to the engine to speed up his bike. Vinny didn't say anything else, he just sped up and followed.


	17. Chapter 17

Thicker than water-

Chapter-17

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Rain couldn't seem to stop the slight tremor that ran through her body as Limberger stepped up to her table and set one of her books down inn front of her along with the bouquet of flowers that he had been holding.

"Why Miss Andrews, it's such a pleasure to see you again-" The man said as he reached out and grasped her hand in his. Rain jerked. Trying to free her hand from his grasp and looked around for _someone_-

_Anyone_ to help her as Limberger lifted her hand to his mouth. He was about to kiss her knuckles when Rain felt someone come up behind her and put one hand on one of her shoulders as they leaned forward a little bit as if trying to shield her. Forcing her head down a little bit.

Rain made a distressed sound and saw a gloved hand pick up the book that the repulsive man had set down on the table and forced it against the man's face,_ violently_.

Limberger had been so intent on the woman that he never saw the book coming at his face until it was being grinded against his masked nose painfully. The man made a startled sound and let go of her hand and growled as Rain started to move back so that she could get up and run. But the solid, hard body against her back kept her from going very far.

So instead she tipped her head back to see who had just saved her and blinked back tears when she saw the murderous expression on Throttle's face.

"Get the hell away from my girl, stink fish." Throttle growled as he shifted his hand so that he could rub his thumb over the eratic pulse in Rain's neck. Limberger growled at the sound of Throttle's voice and reached up to grab his arm but Throttle pulled it back in time to miss having it broken. Which only served to anger the Plutarkian further as the book fell away and he was able to see the martian male.

He was only slightly taken aback by the rodent's appearance.

The Throttle Thornboy standing before the Plutarkian, wasn't the same Throttle Thornboy that he remembered from five years ago. This male was _bigger_. His body wasn't as lean as it used to be. It had far more muscle to it. His hair was a bit longer and he had a _wilder_ look to him.

His scarlet eyes were colder, lacking in the former laid back humor. And they were filled with such hatred and fury-

Limberger felt the insane need to back down. But instead he simply smirked at the mouse and rubbed his sore nose and said. "Ah, Mr. Thornboy. I haven't seen you since that night five years ago when you learned that you were going to be a father-" Rain stiffened in her seat and stopped breathing for a moment as she listened to Limberger. Her mind practically screaming that everything he said had to be a lie.

_Yet it wasn't a lie. Was it?_ Her mind mocked the question back to her.

_No._ She reasoned after a moment or so of thinking things over.

Throttle had been telling her the truth when he had claimed that he was Shira's father. Rain closed her eyes for a moment as guilt rose up in her chest. Guilt for not believing him when he had been trying to tell her something important. And guilt for striking him. God she felt like an idiot.

"I see that you've found Miss Andrews. Am I right to assume that you've found your young as well?" Limberger asked in a sly tone as he looked around. Throttle didn't say anything. He didn't feel the need to tell Limberger shit about his family. His woman and his young were _his_ business. And no one elses.

Besides, he knew the bastard was fishing for information that he could somehow turn against him. Throttle glanced down at Rain to see if she was okay.

He'd noticed when he'd come back to the back of the store that she was dangerously close to having a panic attack and had felt so badly about leaving her even for a short while that he had decided that maybe he didn't need his daughter's help after all. And had decided to step in and save Rain before the fucking Plutark could get his stink on her.

Rain's face was still pale, her body was still shaking slightly and she had a pained look on her pretty face that sent Throttle's temper through the roof. Shifting his hand again, he slipped his palm up under her thick dark hair and pulled her head back a little bit and then without bothering to take his eyes off of limberger even for an second he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.

Rain jerked a little bit at the shock of feeling his lips against her own. His touch was so soft, so tender and loving that Rain nearly broke down and started crying. She wasn't sure if the need to cry was because she was stressed, or if it had to do with Limberger or the kiss. But she definately sensed a good crying jag in her near future.

Throttle pulled back a little bit and cupped her cheek in his hand and had to resist the urge to kiss her again. She just looked so adorable. "I want you to go get Shira and leave the store."

Rain blinked as his words registered in her mind. She opened her mouth to ask him what he was going to do, but didn't get the chance since he jumped over the table and tackled Limberger to the ground and started rolling around and throwing punches.


	18. Chapter 18

Thicker than water- 18

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Rain stepped out of the little cleared area where she had been signing books and nearly jumped out of her skin when Shira stepped around a book case. "Mom?" Rain bent down at the waist and picked her daughter up and started speed walking towards the front of the store while trying to ignore the various oaths, and scathing comments Throttle and Limberger were tossing out as they fought.

Rain slipped out of the store without incident and took off like a shot at a dead run with Shira in her arms down the side walk. She got a good distance from the book store before putting Shira down and grasping her small hand in hers and started walking.

"Mom, what happened back there?"

Rain glanced down at her daughter and wondered what exactly she could say about Limberger and Throttle's fight. The only thing she could think of to say was, "I have no idea."

Shira was quiet for a second as they walked then just to annoy her mother asked where her father was. Rain let go of Shira's hand so quickly that one would think that she had been burned or something. She looked down at Shira with an dark look on her face then growled. "Did that man talk to you?"

Shira tilted her head to the side for a second then shook her head no as she kept her expression as innocent as humanly possible.

That was a loaded question if she'd ever heard one and she wasn't answering it. Her mother would tear her a new one before she bothered hunting down Throttle Thornboy and doing the same to him. Yet despite her efforts not to get into trouble, somehow Shira knew that her mother knew what she wasn't saying.

The look on her face pretty much said everything as she flushed a vivid pink and blinked back tears.

_Uh-oh._ Thornboy was gonna have a lot to answer for the next time her mother saw him. In fact Shira wouldn't be all that surprised if her mother used the man's tail to strangle him. She just looked that pissed.

_That- How could- Ohhhh...that rat faced son of a bitch! _How dare he approach her baby without permission and lie to her about being her father! Rain thought angrily as she fisted and unfisted her hands at her sides. She stood there for a moment or so, practically vibrating with rage while toying with the idea of going back to the book store and breaking something heavy over the damn man's head.

And if not for the fact that Limberger was still at the store, and Shira was with her she might have done just that. But for the moment she needed to hide herself and her daughter and hope that no one else managed to find them today.

She took several deep, calming breaths and grasped Shira's hand again and made her way to the end of the block, half dragging her now silent daughter with her.

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Modo and Vinny were sitting at the stop light at the end of the block, just a ways down from the book store when they saw Rain standing on the corner holding the hand of a little dark haired imp.

At first they didn't seem to realize what they were seeing. For some odd reason it just didn't register with them. But once the walk light flashed green and the woman started walking they got a closer look at her and the little girl walking with her as they both passed less than five feet from them.

Rain was just as lovely in person as she had been on the moniter screen back at Limberger tower. Her body had slimmed down, her hair was neatly combed and hung around her face and shoulders in dark waves and curls. She was wearing a pretty silver colored pants suit with a cream colored shirt and matching two inch heels.

The little girl walking hand and hand with her was a little beauty too with her chocolate brown curly shoulder length hair, ivory skin and wide garnet colored eyes. The girl looked right at them and narrowed her eyes a little bit, no doubt picking up their scents and recognizing them as being similar to her fathers.

She tugged on her mother's hand a little bit, her eyes never leaving them until Rain stopped walking let go of her hand, bent down and picked her up.


	19. Chapter 19

Thicker than water- 19

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Shira stared at the two beings a few feet away and frowned. They smelled like the guy claiming to be her father back at the bookstore, but she couldn't see their faces due to the helmets on their heads. She could however see the rest of them. Like the other guy, they were covered in fur- one white and the other grey. The white one wasn't wearing a shirt. The grey one was wearing what looked like a bullet proof vest that reached his middle and nothing else.

He also had a metal arm...

Was he half robot maybe? She wondered as the grey one caught sight of her and her mother. _Uh-oh. _Something bad was gonna happen in the next few minutes, wasn't it? Shira thought as she lost sight of the two.

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Throttle hit the door of the bookstore running, following the scent of Rain and his young- no that wasn't right; his daughter. Fuck, he had a lil baby girl. A precious, beautiful and highly _intellegent_ baby girl. And he wasn't losing either of them.

Not now that he had finally found them.

Bypassing the place where his bike was, he kept going. Gradually gaining speed as he ran down the crowded street. Rain was up ahead, he could see her. Could see his bro's tailing her at a distance as she carried their daughter as fast as she could away from the bookstore- from him and Limburger. From the safety he and his bros had worked so hard over the past few years to create so that they would be safe from harm.

He let out a low growl, smelling Greasepit somewhere up ahead of her, and knew that Rain was about to step into a trap that would endanger not only herself but their daughter. Gnashing his teeth, he called out hoping to slow her down enough to keep her out of the trap.

"Rain!" She ignored him and he inwardly cringed. He had expected things to be difficult, after all she didn't know anything about him.

Yet she had birthed his daughter.

He had often wondered how she would react when he found her. So far he hadn't been disappointed. She was as prickly as a porcupine. And his young...ah, he had theorized a few years after he and his bro's had become stranded on Earth that hybrid children could be born to a martian and human. But he hadn't been sure of what sort of condition the mother or child would wind up in.

So in the end he had set his theories aside and forgotten them thinking it for the best. But now... Now that he had a child and a woman to worry about- he wasn't so sure it was entirely wise to ignore his former theories.

**_"Rain!"_ **He tried again, his normally soft, husky voice booming so loudly that he saw her falter as she turned to look in his direction. Her eyes locked with his and he felt his heart stutter in his chest as he caught sight of Greasepit stepping out from around a building a short distance from her wearing his usual overalls and some expensive looking sun glasses.

Throttle saw Vinny and Modo tense up and angle their bikes to intercept the giant goon as he put on one final burst of speed and raced to reach Rain first. He would not lose her and his young. Not again- He'd rather _die_ first.

**_"Rain! Run!" _**Throttle shouted as Greasepit got right on top of her, she ran into him. Turning her head to look at what she hit, she let out a blood curtling scream as the giant wrapped an arm around her slender waist a moment before lifting her feet up off of the ground. He saw several emotions flicker across her face at once, shock, horror, anger then determination as she suddenly dropped their young daughter and yelled,

"Shira run! Get as far away from here as you can!" Throttle blinked as his young scrambled to her feet and quickly did as her mother ordered her to as Greasepit carried Rain kicking and screaming towards a car a little ways away.

Throttle growled and felt torn between going after the woman who had birthed his daughter and saving her and securing their offspring so that nothing would happen to her when he saw Modo break from the formation he and Vinny had been in and rev his bike up as he pulled onto the sidewalk and shouted, "I'm going after the girl. Throttle, take Greasepit down!"


End file.
